Inmates Run City Detention Center

State officials pledged April 24 to launch a widespread investigation into corruption at the Baltimore City Detention Center in the wake of the federal indictment of 25 people, including 13 female corrections officers, for a racketeering enterprise that involved drug trafficking, money laundering and sex—all centered inside the jail.

The scheme involved cash payments, sex and access to fancy cars, federal prosecutors said April 23.

The federal grand jury, in an indictment handed up April 2 but sealed until April 23, painted a lurid picture of the jail in the grip of the Black Guerilla Family, a nationwide gang operating “in prisons and on the streets of major cities throughout the U.S.,” the indictment said.

According to prosecutors, 13 female corrections officers essentially handed over control of a Baltimore jail to the gang leaders in exchange for access to luxury cars and money, prosecutors said.

“I think it reflects poorly on the warden of that facility, on the secretary of public safety and on the governor himself,” said Anderson, the chairman of the Baltimore delegation in Annapolis and a member of the House Judiciary Committee. “I think the governor needs to have a long conversation with Maynard and find out what the hell went wrong. There need to be some changes.”

He was referring to Gary D. Maynard, head of the agency that oversees Maryland prisons. Maynard said April 23, ““It’s totally on me. I don’t make any excuses.”

The officers, who were charged with racketeering, were bribed to smuggle drugs, cell phones, and other contraband. The guards provided gang members with favored treatment and special privileges, warned gang members when investigators were closing in on criminal activity and even engaged in long-term sexual relationships with gang members.

Four correctional officers were impregnated by a single gang member, Talon White, who is in the detention center awaiting trial for attempted murder.

According to the indictment, at least one guard was impregnated by him twice.

“These sexual relations cemented the business ties and the association of the correction officers with the enterprise,” the indictment said. The women had his name tattooed on their bodies.

The enterprises inside the jail included trafficking in prescription drugs that are controlled substances, such as Percocet, Xansa and Lora and smuggling of cell phones to facilitate contraband trafficking inside and outside the jail and the illegal trafficking of tobacco products.

The indicted guards are:

• Antonia Allison, age 27, of Baltimore

• Ebonee Braswell, age 26, of Baltimore

• Chania Brooks, age 27, of Baltimore

• Kimberly Dennis, age 26, of Baltimore

• Jasmin Jones, a/k/a J.J., age 24, of Baltimore

• Taryn Kirkland, age 23, of Baltimore

• Katrina LaPrade, a/k/a Katrina Lyons, age 31, of Baltimore

• Tiffany Linder, age 27, of Baltimore

• Vivian Matthews, age 25, of Essex, Maryland

• Jennifer Owens, a/k/a O and J.O., age 31, of Randallstown

• Adrena Rice, age 25, of Baltimore

• Katera Stevenson, a/k/a KK, age 24, of Baltimore

• Jasmine Thornton, a/k/a J.T., age 26, of Glen Burnie

In addition to White, who is known as Bulldog and Tay, age 36, of Baltimore; the indicted gang members are:

• Jamar Anderson, a/k/a Hammer and Hamma Head, age 26, of Baltimore

• Derius Duncan, age 26, of Baltimore

• Steven Loney, a/k/a Stevie, age 24, of Baltimore

• Jermaine McFadden, a/k/a Maine, age 24, of Baltimore

• Kenneth Parham, age 23, of Baltimore

• Joseph Young, a/k/a Monster, age 30, of Baltimore

The indictments seek the forfeiture of $500,000 and other proceeds of the racketeering enterprise. The defendants face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on the racketeering and drug conspiracies, as well as for conspiracy to commit money laundering.